BUFFY MEETS THE PRESS - 2001

Part One

            BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER creator Joss Whedon and series star Sarah Michelle Gellar surprised just about everyone when they as well as exectutive producer Marti Noxon and the rest of the cast showed up at the annual Television Critic’s Association press conference. What follows is part one of our edited transcript of the event, which was “hosted” by publicist Melissa Burton.

MELISSA BURTON: Good morning.  As you can imagine, we are beyond thrilled to BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER join our lineup this fall, beginning with the two-hour premiere on Tuesday, October 9th.  As many of you have noted, BUFFY is, without a doubt, one of the best shows on television.  The series' sixth season promises to be better than ever.  Joss and Marti are already working on a musical episode for November sweeps.  We're going to show a clip and then introduce the cast.

(Clip shown.)

MELISSA BURTON: And we are happy to have with us today, Emmy-nominated Creator and Executive Producer Joss Whedon, Nicholas Brendon, Michelle Trachtenberg, Golden Globe-nominated Sarah Michelle Gellar_, Alyson Hannigan,  James Marsters, Emma Caulfield and Executive Producer Marti Noxon with her new haircut.

QUESTION: Sarah, could you just set the record straight on how you do feel about the whole transition from the WB to UPN for yourself?

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR: Absolutely.  I'm sure people are referring to the comment that I made a while ago.  You have to understand that for five years we had a home.  We had a place where we were supported, where we were able to make the show creatively the way we wanted to make it, and so the thought of making a move was scary. Unfortunately, The WB didn't want to make the show the way we wanted to do it.  They didn't want to give us, or give Joss, what he needed to make the show the way it has to be made.  And Dean [Valentine] has been incredibly supportive.  He's been a fan of the show since before we were on the air, when he was at Disney and tried to get it over to ABC. I’m nervous. I’m excited. UPN has been wonderful. They have said really wonderful things to make us all – I think to make everybody feel incredibly welcome as a whole.  And I think they've given us a new excitement about the show.  It's like getting to start fresh.  It's like getting to show all of these new people the show that we make that we're all so incredibly proud of and proud to make and be a part of, and it's exciting

QUESTION:  With the idea of starting fresh, just to follow up, this roller coaster of emotions I'm sure you've had the last few months involving the show, to see Buffy Summers’ headstone, what was the impact of that on you?  You probably knew you'd be going on in some form at that point, but what did that scene signify to you?

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR: To be truthful, it was episode 16 in Australia when I left, so I’m waiting for the rerun. Unfortunately.

JOSS WHEDON: You die (laughter).

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR:  What? Wait.  You mean my headstone?

ALYSON HANNIGAN: Guys, didn't you get the memo (laughter)?

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR: Oh, my God.  Joss, can we talk?

JOSS WHEDON: You guys have done enough talking.

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR: My guess - - and maybe you should ask other cast members this - - is maybe a sense of finality and a sense again of rebirth, of starting anew, of -- I think there's been a real enthusiasm from the UPN.  They not only are happy to have us, but they’re true fans, and it makes you want to work harder.  It makes you want to show, hey, we can do this.

JAMES MARSTERS: Like we can show off to a whole new group of people.  Yeah, because the tape is going to go out every Thursday, and they're going to be like "Wow, this is great.”

QUESTION:  You say you're all excited, and there's a new wave of enthusiasm and you're starting over, but I believe the contract for all of you guys runs out in a couple of years.  I don't want to look too far forward, but can you see yourself continuing for five more years, or is it going to be exciting for two more years and then that will be the end?

NICHOLAS BRENDON: Are we talking dog years or human years?

ALYSON HANNIGAN: I always wanted the Golden Girls to slay some vampires, so I think that's okay.  Right_, Joss?

JOSS WHEDON: I didn't hear a word you said, darling.  I love you.

JAMES MARSTERS: Seriously, how many really well-written shows are there on television?  You can count them on your digits.

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR: How many well-written movies?  I mean_, it's in general.  I don't think we need to box ourselves in. I think we can compare this show and the writing and the performances and the overall creative aspect to anything.

QUESTION:  I'm getting the impression from what Alyson said that after two years, it's pretty much over.  Is that a wrong impression?

ALYSON HANNIGAN: Hey, I was saying like when we were 80. We could still do this.

JOSS WHEDON: Thanks, Al.

ALYSON HANNIGAN: I don't want do give up my day job.

NICHOLAS BRENDON: Or night job.

JOSS WHEDON: The thing is these guys have all sold their souls to me.

NICHOLAS BRENDON: You had to bring that up, huh?

JOSS WHEDON: Well, I'm proud.  The show will run as long as it's good.  I believe that, you know, some people go.  Tony Head felt he had to step down and go back and live with his family in England.  That's why he's recurring this year instead of a regular.  Changes get made. Obviously we bring on new people.  The show evolves.

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR: I am coming back, though.

JOSS WHEDON: Dead, but back.

ALYSON HANNIGAN: It's a pretty dead.

JOSS WHEDON: Dead, but still pretty.  But I mean, it is possible that maybe the show stops after seven year..  We designed the show basically that every year we thought would be the last year because we didn't know when we made our first 12 if we'd ever air again.  That's why the show always has a kind of closure at the end of every season, every season is an arc. I have no idea. What I do know is these guys are capable of so much and the writers have so many ideas and I have so many ideas and Marti has so many ideas, that the show potentially could run, you know, for a way, way long time.  Eventually there will come a burn out. Eventually we won't be able to make it.  Creatively we'll just be too tired.  I'm sure that will happen.  But right now we're feeling more creative than we have been and more excited than we have been for like three years. So contracts aren't really the point.  Contracts get resolved or they don't.  People move on or they don't.  What matters is that I have another hundred stories to tell, at least, and, you know, the people I want to tell them with.

QUESTION:  If I could follow that up with a pertinent question. What's happened to your hands?

JOSS WHEDON: Ask about half of the people here later on.  They can tell you.  Some orphans, a fire.  I don't want to brag.

NICHOLAS BRENDON: He was sinning.

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR:  I think we're all right now only thinking about a beginning, and I think that thinking about an ending is not something any of us are thinking about right now.  We're too excited about the beginning.

MICHELLE TRACTENBERG:  Looking forward to the new season.  It will be fun.

JAMES MARSTERS.  "Gunsmoke," you know, there are series that go on for a long time, as long as the theme is still relevant, you know.

QUESTION:  Joss, could you talk a little more about Anthony leaving? Will you bring in another Watcher, because that is quite a big hole for the show?

JOSS WHEDON: It is a big hole but -- first of all, Anthony will be on the show in a recurring basis. We'll be bringing him back a lot because we love him.  And the point of this season is that these kids are now entering the grown-up world.  And, of course, they will handle it just as badly as possible.  But they don't really need or don't really know how to relate to a mentor figure.  He was the grown-up on the show.  They're now sort of becoming grown-ups. So I not only want him to step down, I want that void.  Buffy doesn't need somebody to tell her what to do now.  She needs to figure it out on her own.  So I want to feel that lack, because they're going to feel it.  They're constantly going to be going, “If Giles were here, somebody else could look this up.” “Somebody else could explain this.” Or, “We’d have a grown up who knew what to do and we’re still new at this.” And I want the audience to feel the same way the characters do -- that's always the mandate on the show.  So, no, we won't be bringing in another Watcher.

QUESTION:  Joss, two questions, actually.  One is in previous seasons you basically started BUFFY in real-time, letting two or three months go as the summer would and then picking up the characters after that.  Are you planning to do that this season?

JOSS WHEDON: Yes.

JOSS WHEDON: It does not in fact.  The line now runs through Faith.

QUESTION:  Quick question for Joss and Alyson, could we get maybe a tidbit on what we might expect in the Tara-Willow relationship this season?

ALYSON HANNIGAN: Well, Joss and I have been working really hard  (laughter) long hours.  I have no idea.

JOSS WHEDON: You know, what you can expect from any of the relationships on the show, trouble.  The course of true love never does run smooth, or the show would get really boring.  Obviously a couple can't stay in perfect bliss forever, so we are going to shake things up.  But the relationship is a big part of the show and it's a big part of next season.

QUESTION:  Joss, what does the much higher license fee mean to the relaunch of BUFFY and also the two-year commitment? How will viewers notice a change in the look of the show?

JOSS WHEDON: There really isn't going to be that big of a change, because we have a higher license fee, we really don't have a higher budget.  Apart from the increases you accrue every year without exception on a show, we're not looking at suddenly having a giant budget that we can do anything with.  We're making the show exactly the way we were before.  You know, we may have a little more leeway - - we have more leeway than we would have had we been forced to stay at The WB and had no money and we'd have to use hand puppets. But basically we're right where we were, which is all that we were sort of asking for.  FOX is, you know, going to give us the increase we need, but not anything beyond that.  And I wouldn't think to ask for it, because I think too much money spoils you; it let's you get lazy.  If you can put spectacle on the air, you don't have to worry so much about story.

QUESTION:  Joss, given what you said about the Slayer line now running through Faith, does that, number one, mean Faith is coming back? And number two, does that mean that when Buffy does come back, she will no longer be a slayer?

JOSS WHEDON: What Buffy will be when she comes back you'll have to see.  And no, we have no plans for Eliza to be on the show at present because she's making a bunch of movies.

QUESTION:  This is a question for each of the cast members.  The show has evolved and the characters have evolved over the years.  How would each of you like to see your character evolve in this season? Where would you like to see them go?

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR: Alive.

MICHELLE TRACTENBERG: I don't know.  I think we're all kind of anxiously awaiting what Jose and Marti have in store for us; I. never like to say what I'd like to see my character to do because then I build expectations.  And when you expect, the actual product can be completely different and you're caught off track.  It's kind of like improvising.  It's fun and we'll 'see what we get.

ALYSON HANNIGAN: I hope Willow gets taller and she gets a tan.

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR: If we do that, then can I get the boobs?

NICHOLAS BRENDON: Now we're a complete person.

SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR: I think the reason why we make jokes is because every year consistently each one of our characters has evolved; they've gotten stronger; they've added more dimensions. As an actor, that's all you

want.  You want to be able to show different facets of your performance of those characters you create.

JAMES MARSTERS: No two seasons are alike at all.  The characters go through completely different experiences every season.  So whatever happened last season,  turn it on its head, and I think probably you'll see what might happen now.  But really, if you ask any actor, I think - - maybe Nick will take offense -- what you want to do next year_, bag chicks and kick butt. Right?  That's all guys want to do because they want the Bruce Willis kind of “Die Hard” thing, swinging from the rope with bullets.

NICHOLAS BRENDON: I'll take "Unbreakable."

JAMES MARSTERS: You know, what Marti and Joss come up with is infinitely more interesting than that.

NICHOLAS BRENDON: Than Bruce Willis? No.  Bite your tongue.

EMMA CAULFIELD: I think it would be fun to have Anya take a trip to the dark side for a little while.  That would be fun. Honestly, I have such a joy playing her.  She is so just delightfully odd and peculiar.  And just when you think you peg her,  she’s going to come up with a zinger and she's going insult somebody and do something, she makes you cry.  Joss and Marti, the whole team of writers, have given me so much -- I don't know, so much to play with.  And she's been such a challenge, and she's been so much fun.  So whatever they have in store for me, I will, you know, relish, enjoy.  I can't wait.

END OF PART ONE

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